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Hulk
' Biography Early life Childhood Robert Bruce Banner was born on December 18, 1969, on the Los Diablos Missile Base in New Mexico. Banner had a less-than-idyllic childhood. David Banner, his father, was a brilliant atomic physicist and genetics researcher who joined Lt. Colonel Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross' Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project, the United States Army's mid 1960s attempt to recreate Abraham Erskine's Super Soldier Serum. developing his serum. |left|153x153px]] Prior to Banner's birth, his father performed a variety of genetic experiments on animals known for their natural regenerative powers. Eventually coming up with a promising concoction derived from a variety of species, the elder Banner brought the formula to his superiors in order to move forward into the human testing phase. However, Ross forbade it. Ignoring this, and believing wholeheartedly that his formula would yield successful results, David began testing on himself. The serum's effects on him appeared to be temporary, lasting only 12 hours per injection. However, the experiments did fundamentally alter David's DNA on some level, passing on "something" to his son when he was conceived. Once David's wife Edith gave birth to Bruce, the elder Banner realized his mutated DNA had been passed on and attempted to find a cure for his condition. David was horrified and somewhat disgusted at what his son could possibly become should he reach maturity. When Bruce was only a few months old, his father began to analyze his biology and temperament. The younger Banner did not behave like other children his age, rarely showing any intense emotions and turning a pale green color when he did. As his son grew up, David, a normally logical physicist, began to resent him to a degree, due to the love and affection he received from his mother that he felt had been stolen from him. This naturally led him to distance himself from his Bruce, which gave the boy the impression that his father did not love him. Bruce's mother was unsure whether her son's quietness and emotional repression was a form of autism, or if he was suffering abuse at the hands of his father. murder.]] Upon discovering evidence of David's human trials, Ross shut him out of the project. Angered at Ross' betrayal, and seeing no other way to find a cure for his son, the mad scientist Banner activated Desert Base's experimental gamma bomb before rushing home to "put his son out of his misery". Edith, however, would not allow him to kill her son, and threw herself between David and Bruce. David, horrified at accidentally killing his wife, was institutionalized by Ross. The gamma bomb's activation caused regional blackouts and contaminated the area for decades. Bruce was adopted by his aunt Susan. Growing up adopted Bruce lived a seemingly happy and uneventful childhood with his aunt. However, this all ended when Susan married a terrifying man named Russell Drake, whom Bruce feared and hated. After 3 miserable years, Susan divorced Drake and became an alcoholic. Unable to sustain a job, she began to harm herself, and verbally abused Bruce. Bruce was removed from her custody after she was placed in a mental health institution. He moved between various foster home for the rest of his childhood. To deal with all the traumatic experiences he had witnessed, Bruce created an imaginary friend named "Mr. Fixit" to play with him during his lonelier moments. Mr. Fixit defended him whenever he was physically abused or threatened, and also "protected" his mind by gradually repressing the memories of all that he had witnessed. Whenever Bruce was unable to deal with something, Mr. Fixit would manifest himself as a separate personality. The repressed memories of the murder of his mother and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, aunt, and Drake often resulted in intense nightmares that left Bruce shaken and disturbed. However, upon waking, he could never remember anything. When Bruce was 10, he was adopted by John and Celia Krenzler. Bruce loved his adopted parents dearly, and even took their last name as his own. After much intense therapy, he overcame many of his psychological problems and outgrew his imaginary friend. The Krenzlers actively encouraged Bruce's scientific mind, and with their love and support he finally began to embrace his own intelligence, receiving multiple accolades and scholarships during his high school years. College and career Bruce enrolled in Harvard University, determined to begin a career in genetics. There he met Betty Ross, an equally brilliant scientist-in-training who was studying in the same field. Bruce ended up graduating with three doctorates; nuclear physics, biochemistry, and radiobiology. Bruce and Betty began a relationship after they graduated, and soon fell in love. Betty's father turned out to be the now-General Thunderbolt Ross, who knew of Bruce's identity as the son of David Banner. In order to more easily keep an eye on Bruce, Ross invited both him and Betty to work on his Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project Mark II at Culver University, which he had dusted off after the September 11 attacks and the ensuing Afghanistan and Iraq Wars had renewed interest in biological troop enhancement. However, Ross declined to reveal to the two the true nature of the project, instead telling them that they were working on a way to genetically synthesize radiation resistance in humans. The Bio-Tech Project made solid progress until 2003 when it was revealed to the public that the army had been testing their work on captured Al-Haquid terrorists. In response to this, the United States Congress voted to cut the project's funding. Betty stopped speaking with her father and left the project, and Bruce followed her. The two began working with Peter Corbeau at UC Berkeley, developing a similar product called "nanomeds", which were a repairing agent similar in concept to the original Super Soldier Serum. A replacement serum, less-effective and damaging to tissue, was provided by Thundebolt Ross for use with the Bio-Tech Project. Bruce used his own genetics as an initial matching template for the nanomeds. During their research, the Berkeley team received assistance from Erik Selvig, one of Culver's instructors whom Bruce had acquainted. Becoming the Hulk Gamma research at Berkeley. ]] Things would change for the both of them after Betty unexpectedly dumped Bruce, saying she was tired of his cordoned off emotional baggage and resigns herself to remaining an interested onlooker in his quiet. However, after some bonding post-break up, the two decided to remain friends, citing their frequent interaction as colleagues. As an experienced genetic scientist, Bruce studied the effects of gamma radiation on damaged tissue during his nanomed work at Berkeley. It is discovered that General Thunderbolt Ross intentionally withheld the true intent of the project from Betty and Bruce, who was being led to believe that all of his research is working towards improving human radiation resistance. Ross is heavily concerned for his daughter's safety around Bruce, and, upon learning of the two's progress towards synthesizing a successful serum, begins to use his vast connections to wrestle more control from his daughter and his superiors, attempting to restart his project. Ross essentially blackmails his daughter and Bruce in order to prevent them from reporting his criminal activities. She decides to propose their results to the college's review board to determine if there are other contractors interested in a piece of the project, hoping that the direction their research has gone will disinterest her father from pursuing it further. that was used in the experiments.]] Bruce and Betty use the healing capabilities of the nanomeds to act as a repairing agent which keeps the subject alive during the dangerous serum-injection procedure. Once activated by a device called a Gammasphere, the nanomeds work to regenerate living tissue while the gamma acts as a catalyst to activate the serum. During the first few months, the experiments go better than planned, the success being credited to the use of gamma radiation, which replaced the lower-but-more-stable energy vita radiation from Project Rebirth. However, with the limited supply of Ross' Super Soldier Serum dwindling with each experiment, the nanobots soon begin to result in out-of-control cellular growth, making them invariably fatal to the amphibian test subjects. Unfortunate accident tries to acquire the nanomed project. ]]In April 2005, the military-industrial company Atheon, represented by the unscrupulous Major Glen Talbot, becomes interested in the research to build self-healing soldiers of their own. They were refused, but Talbot was determined to acquire the project. Talbot's takeover was seen as an inevitable move by Betty and Bruce. While the two endeavored to keep the project's goals pure by strictly pursuing its scientific and life-saving applications, the college was not as picky. The initial phases of the Iraq War were winding down and the project, as well as almost all other programs within Infantry Weapons Development began to lose most of their funding. As a consequence, the labs at Berkeley began to proceed to the later phases of testing when earlier tests were not yet complete. To impress the review board to keep the project alive, the experiments continued. . |left]] One day, as Bruce, Betty and their colleague, Harper, continued to make progress on their experiments, they experienced a freak lab accident during a routine power-up when there was an overload of the nanomeds, and Harper was stuck in the lab testing room. Bruce saves Harper but took the brunt of the gamma radiation himself. After the gamma hit him, Bruce blacked out. When Bruce woke up in a hospital bed recovering from the accident, he finds himself not only miraculously alive, but also feeling better than ever. Bruce speculates that this is a sign that the Super Soldier Serum has finally been successfully recreated by the nanomeds, but Betty is skeptical, due to the fact that the nanomeds had never worked on their own without the serum. In reality, the gamma had activated Bruce's already-mutated DNA, compounding the strength and effects of the altered Super Soldier Serum within him since his birth. His mutated amygdala had always stored small, naturally occurring amounts of his father's serum. Now, when he is angered or stressed, his irradiated amygdala releases a so-called "gamma pulse" which signals his body to begin catalyzing the serum, initiating his transformations. The nanomeds kept him alive during the accident, just as they had in their earliest experiments on frogs, working together with his body to help him absorb the huge amount of gamma radiation he had endured. First transformation David Banner reappears after almost 30 years, having escaped from the mental asylum in which he was incarcerated by forging his own release papers. He starts infiltrating his son's life by tracking him down, and then murdering the janitor working at the lab building, Benny, and replacing him. The night of the accident, David confronts Bruce, revealing their relationship and his true name, Bruce Banner. He hints at his knowledge of his son's condition, but Bruce does not believe him for the time being. Using some of Bruce's DNA which he managed to retrieve from the hospital, he begins experimentation on animals, while also continuing to watch his son closely. Soon after, Bruce is released from the hospital and begins working at Berkeley again. The building rage within him stems from all of the stresses built up around him (repressed memories, his father, Betty, General Ross, Talbot and the accident). One night, an upsetting phone call from Betty sends him over the edge, which activates his gamma-irradiated DNA, and triggers Bruce's first transformation into the green Hulk': his clothes shred and his body begins to increase in size as he loses control and blacks out. Bruce's inner beast is unleashed, and in an instant he suddenly becomes one of the most powerful beings on the face of the earth. Bruce (as the Hulk) tears through the building and destroys his lab, hurling the Gammasphere through a wall. His father sees him in his transformed state, and is in both awe and horror of what he has created, deepening his obsession. Bruce leaps out of a hole through the roof and disappears into the night. Aftermath After the destruction at the lab, Bruce is found unconscious at his home by Betty. Bruce does remember his transformation, but passes it off as a dream. The transformation itself he describes as a sensation similar to birth. He finds himself ravenously hungry and exhausted, but does not connect his memories of the transformation with David, whom he still does not recognize. The entire incident the previous night is covered up as a gamma exposure which contaminated the lab and required a complete evacuation of the campus. Ross arrives and is suspicious of Bruce's story. He places him under house arrest and then finally retakes control over Betty and Bruce's lab, halting the program for now. Betty is forbidden to communicate with Bruce for the next few days. House arrest : ''"Some more repressed memories." : "Just tell me." "I'm sorry son. You're an even more screwed-up mess than I thought you'd be." :: ―General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross and Bruce Krenzler ' At Bruce's house, General Ross interrogates him and tells him of his relations with his father. However, every time he is questioned about his memories of his father or the events of his past, Bruce tells the General that he does not remember any of it. He claims that every single time his foster parents told him about his father they said he was dead. In response, the General claims that there is no way he could fathom Bruce ever forgetting "a thing like that", referring to his father's murder of his mother, but Bruce still does not understand. Ross tells Bruce that the former Bio-Tech lab has been declared a top-secret military site by his superiors, and that he has once again been given full clearance regarding the project. He also adds that he forbids Bruce from ever seeing Betty ever again, or he will lock him up for the rest of his natural life, just like his father. : "Talbot........you're making me angry..." : "Oh, am I?" :: ―Bruce Krenzler to Major Glenn Talbot That night, David Banner phones Bruce and tells him he has arranged for a test to see if he has recreated the conditions of Bruce's transformation. He unleashed three gamma-mutated dogs to Betty's house. Enraged, he attempts to leave but Talbot attacks Bruce. As he is tackled on the ground, Bruce warns Talbot to leave for his own safety, saying that "you're making me angry". Soon, Bruce grabs Talbot's hand and nearly breaks them as he slowly turns green, shocking Talbot. As Bruce's strength forces Talbot onto the couch, Bruce transforms again, shocking Talbot. Bruce throws Talbot out of the house and his henchmen open fire, furthering angering Bruce and causing him to increase his size from 8 feet tall to about 13 feet. He then throws Talbot at his henchmen, knocking them out and injuring Talbot's neck. After that, he uses his powerful legs to leap up into the air and begins to make his way towards Betty's house atop a redwood tree.]] Betty hears a tremendous crash outside, and goes to investigate. She then encounters a transformed Bruce, but this time he does not release his rage but is calm in her presence. He places her in her car when the three mutant dogs comes to them and then begins to fight. Bruce approaches the dogs and begins to scuffle, but finds himself outgunned and outnumbered. He then picks up a large log and begins to beat down two of the dogs, while the third goes after Betty in the car. Bruce saves her from the gamma dog, and then jumps up into the redwood trees as they follow. After a long and bloody fight, two of the dogs explode into bursts of gamma and flesh, as their mutation was unstable. He manages to to kill the third and final dog, which then also explodes. Bruce returns back to normal in front of a pool, and then collapses in Betty's arms. It is here that Bruce first refers to his alter-ego as "that...Hulk". He and others would usually refer to it as this from here on out. Captured The next morning, Bruce is tranquilized and taken to an enormous underground base in the Nevada desert, near where his old house was when he was a child. Betty convinces her father to allow her to attempt to help Bruce control his transformations, but Ross remains extremely skeptical, claiming that the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project's results were never intended to be reversed, and believing Bruce is "damned" to follow in his father's footsteps. mutates himself even further. ]] Testing continues on Bruce, while, unbeknownst to him, David Banner breaks into the quarantined lab and subjects himself to the nanomeds and the gamma sphere, mutating the serum that was present within his cells which he injected himself with during his original experiments and gaining the ability to meld with and absorb the properties of anything he can touch. He uses his new power to murder a security guard who was about to arrest him and then continues his work. Talbot's plan Locked within the underground facility for the foreseeable future, Bruce begins to try to become accustomed to captivity, and after several weeks, he begins to feel that he can control his own rage and perhaps prevent further transformations that way. The only reason that the Armed Forces keep Bruce alive is because of the implications for mass profits that could occur if his power could be harnessed and weaponized. As time progresses, however, it gets harder and harder for Bruce to deny his captors a transformation. Talbot, still healing from his injuries sustained during Bruce's rescue of Betty, attempts to force one by way of a savage beating and extraction in a bathroom. After Bruce's will proves too strong for Talbot to break, he decides to try and bring about an unconscious transformation. Abilities * '''Genetic mutation: David Banner's experiments on himself were mostly fruitless, but encoded within his son's DNA was an inactive but highly potent form of his regenerative serum. This unique serum actually held the key to the regenerative power that David Banner hoped to create, but Bruce unknowingly suppressed his capabilities as a young child, likely due to the trauma he endured. Category:S.H.I.E.L.D. 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